Siegbert Tarrasch

Defeated in the 1908 World Championship Match

Chessmetrics Ranking: World number two for a total of 111 months (9 years) between 1890 – 1906

Tournament Career: Winner of seven super-tournaments:

3-time winner of the German Chess Congress

Winner of the Vienna Chess Tournament 1898

Winner of Manchester 1890, Monte Carlo 1903, Ostend 1907 

Matches: Tarrasch vs Chigorin 9:9 (=4)

  Tarrasch vs Marshall 8:1 (=8)

  Tarrasch vs Schlechter 3:3 (=10)

Why He Deserved It:

The great theorist and author Siegbert Tarrasch was also a great player. His chess career was at its best roughly from 1890 to 1910. He spent a total of nine years in second place in the world according to historical rankings. It is almost unbelievable that he never reached first place even for a single month. However, he was part of the top 5 for twenty years and won tournaments. He won the traditionally strong German Chess Congress three times and also won events in Vienna, Manchester, Ostend, and Monte Carlo. For example, in Ostend, he won ahead of Janowski, Schlechter, Chigorin, Marshall, and Burn.

He was also a great match player, known for his drawn and very combative match with Chigorin, and he absolutely crushed the American wizard Marshall in a match.

The most important match of his career, however, he lost – to Lasker for the World Championship title in 1908 (+3, -8, =5). There was a long-standing personal rivalry and animosity between Lasker and Tarrasch, but Tarrasch never quite equaled him in chess.

Another of his great rivals was Nimzowitsch, and by extension, the entire hypermodern chess school. Tarrasch was a representative of the classical school, and his views were labeled as dogmatic by the hypermodernists.

Best Games:

Aaron Nimzowitsch vs Siegbert Tarrasch

St. Petersburg 1914